Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Raises £330M in IPO, Shares Rise in Trading Debut

This story has been updated to include financial information from Oxford Nanopore Technologies' IPO prospectus.

NEW YORK ­­­­­– Oxford Nanopore Technologies priced its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, raising net proceeds of approximately £330.1 million ($445.1 million).

The Oxford, UK-based sequencing technology company issued approximately 123.3 million ordinary shares at an offering price of £4.25 per share.

With approximately 15 percent of the company's shares issued in the offering, Oxford Nanopore's market capitalization upon admission to the trading floor was approximately £3.37 billion, a figure that would soon grow. Trading opened at £5.25 per share and rose to £6.22 before falling to £6.07 in afternoon trading. At that share price, the company would be valued at approximately £4.80 billion.

Oxford Nanopore announced in March its intention to go public this year. Earlier this month, it registered the offering with the London Stock Exchange and announced that Oracle would subscribe for £150 million in new shares as part of the fundraising.

Merrill Lynch International, Citigroup Global Markets, and JP Morgan Securities (conducting its UK investment banking business as JP Morgan Cazenove) acted as joint global coordinators with Barclays Bank; Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. London Branch; Guggenheim Securities; Numis Securities; and RBC Europe acted as joint bookrunners for the offer.

In the offering prospectus, Oxford Nanopore disclosed its financial results for the first two quarters of 2021. For the six months ended June 30, the firm reported total revenues of £59.0 million, up 22 percent from £48.3 million in the year-ago period.

The company's net loss for the period was £44.8 million compared to a loss of £35.5 million in the prior-year period.

Its R&D expenses were £30.6 million, up 29 percent from £23.8 million a year ago, while SG&A expenses were £43.2 million, up 28 percent from £34.0 million in 2020.

As of June 30, Oxford Nanopore had £119.7 million in cash and cash equivalents.

The firm said it plans to use the majority of the net proceeds from the IPO to increase R&D investment in its product pipeline and double the size of its commercial team in the next 18 months. It also plans to increase investment in manufacturing automation and customer acquisition initiatives in the medium term and pursue smaller in-licensing opportunities and potential acquisitions in the medium-to-long term.

In addition to the shares sold by the firm, certain shareholders sold about 41 million shares as part of the offering, netting proceeds of £166.2 million.